Ukraine's Trade With Russia Is Rapidly Increasing

Ukraine’s volume of trade with Russia collapsed after 2014. It will probably never recover, but it remains very significant for Ukraine, and what is more, is rising rapidly:

Despite the improving trade with the EU, Russia still plays an extremely important role in Ukraine’s trade: the trade turnover with Russia was just under $5bn for the same period, with both exports and imports rising at the about the same pace as those with the EU.

After a heavy decline, exports to Russia are rising again, which were up by 26.4% in the first half of this year to $1.93bn. However, this increase off a very low base and prior to the current conflict Russia made up about half of Ukraine’s trade with volumes in the tens of billions. Imports from Russia were up by even more, by 41.5% to $2.99bn.

Kiev claims Russia is at war with Ukraine yet it spends more and more money on Russian imports? Wouldn't that be treason if Ukraine's government truly believed Russia is occupying Donbass?

Also worth mentioning is that while the $5 billion worth of goods exchanged in the first half of 2017 represents 9.4 percent of Ukraine's total trade volume, it represents just some 2 percent of Russia's much larger trade with the world. While Russia links are still vital to Ukraine's economy the reverse is no longer true.